


Being a disaster is both gay and hero culture, what did you expect

by Spiceloaf



Series: call it courage [1]
Category: Original Work, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Asexual Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Gen, Mild Language, Sorry for tagging him but he’s in there for a second, Trans Male Character, be careful please, continue to ignore me this is more oc stuff, like it’s her quirk but it’s Bad, this is pre relationship so I just tagged it as gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 18:05:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17430866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spiceloaf/pseuds/Spiceloaf
Summary: They’re a little rough around the edges, but their pieces fit together like they were made for it.(OC fic)





	Being a disaster is both gay and hero culture, what did you expect

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Projecting?? I have no idea what you mean
> 
> Also literally right of the bat there’s some eating disorder stuff so if that might upset you please be careful

It was Thursday, and Mine kind of hated Thursdays.

They just... sucked? She always felt the worst on Thursday, like the room was spinning and someone was stepping on her stomach with stiletto heels. It was weird, since she still had Friday until she could eat, but on Fridays everything became foggy and numb, which wasn’t so bad.

The bell for the end of class rang, driving needles into her ears, and she started tucking her notebooks into her bag on autopilot, not minding the crinkle of papers being folded and crumpled. The bell was for lunchtime, another thing she both loved and hated. Loved, because class was boring and at lunch she could talk as much as she wanted. Hated, because… well, the food. Had she taken her meds today? She stood up from her desk to- she—

—She grinned and leaned on top of Benny, not exactly heavy, but tall enough to deserve an annoyed “Hey!” when he had to drop his chopsticks and brace himself.

“Five hundred yen says she’s just looking for an opportunity to smash,” Mine stage-whispered, her voice a little muffled from the mask she must have put back over her nose and mouth at some point but unmistakably shit-eating. Benny turned a shade of red that matched his tie, and she could practically feel the heat coming off of him.

“A-absolutely not, what- What the fuck? There’s no way she’s into- into _me_ , a-and I’m not interested anyway! She just needs help with English, and it makes sense to go to me for it, and _that’s all_ ,” he hissed. When he spoke, he stuttered and waved his hands all over the place, embarrassed, and it was both funny and _adorable_. Mine grinned behind her mask and ignored how she didn’t know how she got here, how her limbs felt like stretched taffy, taking a breath-

“It’s likely that she is truly seeking help with English. A lot of people are stressed about the test next Monday, and most of them haven’t bothered to study before now,” Ayako jumped in from across the table, probably hoping to stop things before either of them could make a scene. She pointed at Mine with her chopsticks, one delicate eyebrow raised in disdain. “Including you.”

Mine lifted herself off of Benny and shrugged unapologetically, leaning heavily against the table and feeling a shiver of cold run up her spine. “Fair. It’ll be fine.” She couldn’t focus long enough to study anyway. She’d worry about it over the weekend. She did take her meds today, right?

Benny huffed and returned to his food, halfheartedly picking at the soba Lunch Rush had served that day. Ayako studied Mine for a little longer than she thought was necessary, before her face smoothed into that flatness that always meant trouble. “Of course, that doesn’t mean she isn’t also looking for tutoring in _other_ respects. She probably considers it a bonus; two birds with one stone and all that,” Ayako said, absolutely deadpan and staring disinterestedly down at her lunch even as the smallest of smirks tugged at her mouth.

Benny actually choked on his noodles, and Mine howled with laughter until her ribs ached.

* * *

“ _An_ is used when the subject begins with the letter _U_ , Sensei.”

“ _That’s right_ , listener, but it’s also used for the other vowels, too. _A, E, I, O_ , and _U_.”

Ayako lowered her hand and nodded, brows furrowed. She hadn’t technically been wrong, but she’d missed things all the same. She couldn’t afford to get sloppy like that.

The rest of the class was quiet as Present Mic turned back to the board, but she imagined she could feel their stares boring into her back. It was rare for her to have to be corrected, partly due to her natural intellect and partly due to her friendship with Benny. It wasn’t that she was a perfectionist, she _wasn’t_ , but this was something she should definitely know already. Thoughtful, she returned her attention to her notes, and didn’t offer her input for the rest of the class.

Fortunately for her, English was their last class of the day. At the bell’s dismissal, Ayako waved Mine and Benny off with the promise of catching up later and approached Mic-sensei’s desk. If she was slipping in English, she could at least improve in a different aspect. Looking up from a paper he’d been grading, Mic-sensei greeted her with a raised eyebrow and a bright grin, voice less dramatic in the absence of a class but no less expressive, “And what can I do for my star student today?”

Ayako knew it wasn’t what he was expecting, but- “Please, could you show me a few more vocal exercises? I ran out of breath in the last training match and lost the round because of it.”

The other eyebrow shot up to join the other and he turned in his chair to face her, peering at her over his shades with piercing eyes she had never quite grown accustomed to. “The other ones not working for you, listener?”

She _wasn’t_ frustrated, but her mouth pulled down at one corner and she shook her head. “No, they worked, but it wasn’t enough. I need to get better.”

There was a pause as he blinked, something expression on his face that she couldn’t read, and then the grin was back. Mic-sensei crossed his legs and steepled his fingers. “Ah, okay! Sure, I think I’ve got a few more for you, listener. _Are you ready?_ ” He asked the last bit in English, and she nodded, a grim smile creeping its way onto her face.

She’d do it _better_ next time.

* * *

For the third time that night, the smoke alarm was shrieking like a middle-aged woman whose coffee order he had gotten wrong, and _ay dios mio Benny was about to commit murder_.

Of course, he was too short to even hope to reach the button to properly disarm it, and he didn’t exactly have the time to go grab a chair to stand on while he was _in the middle of cooking things on a hot stove_. So there he was, hopping and fanning a dish towel at the thing to blow away the steam and maybe get it to _stop_. At this rate, he was going to burn the vegetables, and that would make him no better than the two culinary monsters he called friends.

Mine finally got up from where she’d been slumped over at the counter, laughing at him _like an ass_ , and reached up with her stupidly long arms to turn off the alarm. Benny grumbled, not bothering to thank her, and turned back to the stove just in time to save the meal. Pulling the veggies off of the heat and tasting an onion, all he needed to do was add a little more cumin (he’d had to bring it from home, since it was near impossible to find cumin in Japan). Vegetables, ready. Benny turned to put the leftover rice from last night in the microwave right as the sound of the door opening reached his ears. Without looking over, he mustered up the goodwill to greet Ayako with “Hey, welcome back! You almost missed dinner.”

Ayako set her bag down on the couch and immediately went to the cabinet to get a mug. She helped herself to a generous amount of tea from the kettle he’d had on the stove, humming a wordless response. Her shoulders were slumped out of their usual perfect posture, and for even just that little noise her voice sounded scratchy. Unsurprised, Benny’s expression softened into a resigned smile and he pulled the rice out of the microwave to fluff it.

Mine wandered over to sit at the table, the pink mask with little white paw prints over the lower half of her face not hiding the way her eyes crinkled in a smile as she teased, “Yeah, when people say they’re going to catch up later, they generally don’t mean _four hours later_.” She looked sickly in the kitchen light, eyes unfocused and a subtle tremble in her hands. She was present and _trying_ , though, so Benny paused to pull a mug of black coffee from under the Keurig and slid it across the table towards her. Everything was ready. Three bowls, a scoop of rice in each, veggies over top. Benny put extra veggies in the third bowl, which was then wrapped and put in the fridge. He carried the other two to the table for him and Ayako, who had slumped in the seat next to Mine.

Sitting down and passing Ayako her meal, he took a moment to look at the girls across the table. A moment of quiet fell across them. Mine had pulled her mask down and was sipping carefully from her mug, eyes closed. Ayako murmured a rough “Itadakemasu,” before tucking into her bowl. The smell of cumin and paprika still hovered in the dorm, and the bowl between his hands was warm against his fingers. It was… nice. Peaceful. They were all tired, but relatively comfortable. The smoke alarm was even off, still, and the sound of crickets filtered in through the open window.

It kind of felt like home, Benny thought.

* * *

When she was on hero duty, she stopped being Mine for a while. She was the Predator, and nothing else.

This came with its upsides and downsides.

Upsides: The power. The strength that filled her limbs like liquid heat and wound her tight like a spring ready to snap out at any foe in her sight. The way everything but her target fell away and nothing else mattered. Not the daily checkups, not the looks people gave her when they learned about her quirk and connected it to her hollow cheeks and baggy clothing, nothing.

Then there were the downsides. The same heat that made her attacks so strong tearing around her insides and leaving nothing but scalding fire and gnawing emptiness. How even through her cloak, the autumn air felt like the depths of winter, a cold that seeped into her bones and stayed there. She was used to making sense of what she saw through blurred vision bordered by black spots.

She was fine. This was how it should be.

She stalked through the parking garage, eyes flashing in the dark like an animal. Her costume was largely black, making her blend almost perfectly into her surroundings. The only sign of her presence were the quiet clicks that the claws of her greaves made on the pavement.

In contrast, her target was loud. Was he loud to any other person? She didn’t really know. To her, he was a flashing neon sign of heavy breaths, a racing heartbeat, and the thrill of adrenaline. Behind her muzzle, her mouth watered (Mine thought about that a lot, late at night. What would happen at the end of a fight if she didn’t design a muzzle with her costume). She slunk closer.

 _There_ he was. A villain with a mutation quirk that made him huge, gave him bearish features. He was the last standing member of a drug ring that had been hunted and apprehended over the last two months. Probably of the bodyguard type, not very smart. It was amazing he’d made it as long as he had. She could see him, crouched behind a car like he could hide from her.

In an instant, Predator pounced, and then she was on him.

* * *

Shitshitshit Predator was supposed to wait for the signal but then again, Infodump thought a tad hysterically, when did she ever? Predator sunk her armored fingers into the villain’s shoulders and the man _roared_ , reaching back with a huge paw tipped with five several-inch-long claws.

Infodump dashed into the villain’s line of sight, took a deep breath, and regurgitated the first thing that came to mind, something from an article she’d read that morning on the train to school.

“As one of the highest-altitude-dwelling mammals, the Himalayan marmot is chronically exposed to cold temperature, hypoxia, and intense UV radiation. They also hibernate for more than six months during the wintertime. Those biological features led scientists, including first author Liang Bai, to consider the Himalayan marmot as an ideal animal model for studying the molecular mechanisms of adaptation to extreme environments. To begin-“

The villain’s eyes had snapped to her as the first word came out of her mouth, and for several seconds he seemed visibly torn between her mindless chatter and the very painful claw marks Predator was carving into his back as she struggled to gain traction. In the end, as it always did, her voice won the battle and the man lumbered toward her with a snarl of rage, even as Predator began choking him out with thin but vicelike arms.

She’d trained for this. She’d spent hours in the gym because it was inevitable that she’d have to fight hand to hand with a quirk like hers, but this man was ten feet tall and also like an actual _bear_ so she faltered as he swiped at her, claws narrowly missing her shoulder. She gasped, lost her train of thought, and in that free moment he reached back towards Predator and-

“Hey hey hey no don’t do that just look at me and me only, yeah-“

His eyes snapped back down to her and he was _too close, this was all going wrong_ -

His claws came down.

* * *

Marshmallow Man- though for him it was Benny and would always be Benny- plowed into Infodump and took a bear paw the size of his torso to the face.

It… didn’t really hurt that much. The claws sucked, and he was going to have a few scratches that hopefully wouldn’t need stitches, but the feeling of his entire head being forced into his shoulders like he was some sort of turtle was just uncomfortable. Bear-guy reeled back in surprise, pulling his paw free and letting Benny spring back into a less disgusting shape. Benny offered him a weak smile, waving like the _horribly awkward dude he was oh my god who does that??_

“Uh, h-hey. You-“ and Benny didn’t get to finish because Bear-guy roared and punched him in the gut with the full force of his bear self behind it. Okay, yeah, Benny deserved that, but it also gave him the opportunity he needed to do _this_.

The villain’s fist sank into him like it was punching slime and Benny twisted, solidifying just enough to trap it there (and give himself a fantastic stomach ache). When the other paw came down, he caught it in his arms and loosened them enough to tie his own hands together like rope.

As if on cue, Infodump began talking again from somewhere out of sight. Benny held his breath and let the words wash over him as Bear-guy struggled and gurgled, unable to free himself from his Benny-handcuffs and too distracted to figure out how to get out of Predator’s tightening chokehold.

Thirty more seconds, and it was over.

* * *

Once they’d gotten their provisional licenses, they had been afraid of having to split up for their internships.To their relief, however, their teachers recognized how perfectly they fit in battle together, each student’s strength covering another’s weakness. They quickly became a package deal, and the three happily spent most of their time together. By this point, nights like this were practically routine.

With the villain apprehended, they all got a ride back to UA in one of the police vehicles. The moment the villain had been incapacitated enough for Benny to let him go, he had rolled onto his hands and knees and retched for a solid minute. The feeling of his organs slowly shifting back into their natural positions wasn’t one he wanted to experience again any time soon. He was leaning against the car door now, pressing his pale face against the cool glass with his arms wrapped protectively around his middle.

By the other door, Mine was bundled up in her cloak and taking tiny sips from a nutrition shake that Ayako had brought on the mission. Already, the inhumanly pointed ears and sharp teeth that she had grown over a week of fasting had disappeared, leaving a tired, shaky human in their place. She was so, so ready to go home and eat the dinner Benny had made for her the night before.

Akayo was in between the two, fussing over the scratches that littered the back of Benny’s neck. In the occasional flashes of street light that cut the darkness of the car, her face was impassive. The tight set of her shoulders, however, said that she wouldn’t forget exactly why Benny even had the injuries.

None of them really wanted or needed to talk. It was, what, two in the morning? And that had been exhausting. They would talk about it later, in the morning: what went wrong, what they could have done better.

Mine capped her drink when it was half empty and slumped bonelessly against Ayako with a drowsy hum. Ayako, to her credit, didn’t protest. With a sigh, she accepted that Benny wouldn’t die from a few scratches and wrapped an arm around Mine. She folded her legs up and laid against Benny, who by nature was a very good pillow, and Mine shifted to rest her head against Ayako’s side, her hands tucked up into her cloak for warmth. Benny, already half asleep, began to run his fingers through the tangle of Ayako’s hair.

For now, they caught up on some well-needed sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> On the off chance you made it this far, thanks!


End file.
